An investor who closes this fall on a duplex in Edelweiss, a few blocks from Brian Bachmann Community Park, loses nothing when the state's 20% appraisal cap on rental property ends on December 31. That buyer was never going to get the cap.
Texas's temporary "circuit breaker" limit on non-homestead property starts the tax year after the first year an owner holds the property on January 1. A duplex bought after January 1, 2025 would first have been covered in tax year 2027. A duplex bought in 2026 would have waited until 2028. The cap expires before either date, so it will never apply to those purchases. Only owners who held their rental on January 1, 2025 or earlier got any benefit from it in 2026. Even for them, the benefit was probably smaller than the headlines suggest.
What ends, and what stays
The Texas Comptroller describes two separate limits on how fast an appraised value can rise. Only one of them goes away.
| Homestead cap | Non-homestead "circuit breaker" | |
|---|---|---|
| Who qualifies | A home with a residence homestead exemption | Real property that is not a homestead, valued at $5,320,000 or less for 2026 |
| Annual limit | 10% plus new improvements | 20% plus new improvements |
| When it starts | Jan. 1 of the year after the owner qualifies for the exemption | Jan. 1 of the year after the owner first owns the property on Jan. 1 |
| When it ends | Jan. 1 of the year after the owner stops qualifying | Dec. 31, 2026 |
Lawmakers had several chances in 2025 to extend the 20% cap. HB 202 and HB 1622 would have made it permanent. Both stayed in House committee. SB 322 would have tightened the cap to 10% and extended it through 2031, provided voters approved a constitutional amendment. It stayed in Senate committee, according to its bill history. HB 84, filed in the second special session, proposed an 8% non-homestead cap. Its bill history shows it was referred to committee and did not pass. As of now, the Comptroller's guidance still lists December 31, 2026 as the end date. The Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M wrote in July that the cap was "set to expire at the end of this year."
For tax year 2027, then, a rental in Edelweiss will be appraised at market value with no 20% limit. The owner-occupied house next door keeps its 10% cap.
Why the cap rarely limited anything in 2026
A cap only matters if values rise faster than the cap allows. In Brazos County, they mostly didn't this year.
In April, KBTX reported that the Brazos Central Appraisal District put 2026 values up about 10% across the county. In May, KBTX quoted the chief appraiser describing the countywide increase as roughly 7% to 8%. Under either figure, a typical property finished well short of 20%.
Take a hypothetical Edelweiss rental appraised at $300,000 in 2025. Under the circuit breaker, its 2026 appraised value could go no higher than $360,000. If its market value rose 8% to $324,000, the cap never came into play. The appraisal district taxes the lower of market value or the capped figure, and the market value was lower. In a year like 2026, that owner got nothing from the cap.
Look at it another way: the cap behaves like an insurance policy. It pays out only in an unusually bad year for appraisals. Losing it takes away protection against a jump, not a discount the owner has been getting all along.
Where the cap was doing real work
Some owners will feel the expiration, and the place to look is the land value line.
South College Station had an example this spring. KBTX reported that some Creek Meadows Estates owners said their land values had jumped by more than 120% while their home values went down. The circuit breaker limits total appraised value, so falling improvement values can offset part of a land jump. If the land increase is large enough to push the property's total market value more than 20% above last year's appraised value, the cap holds the bill down. Without it, the full market value goes on the bill.
In Edelweiss, that points to a specific group of owners:
- They owned the rental on January 1, 2025 or earlier, so the cap actually covered them in 2026.
- Their 2026 notice shows an appraised value below market value, which means the cap is holding something back.
- Their land values are being reassessed faster than the area as a whole.
For an owner who doesn't fit all three, the cap has done little or nothing so far, so its end takes away protection against a future jump rather than a break they're getting now.
The gap with the homestead next door that doesn't expire
The larger difference between a rental and an owner-occupied home on the same Edelweiss street comes from the school homestead exemption, and that exemption is permanent.
According to the Comptroller's exemptions page, Texas requires a $140,000 school-tax exemption for a qualifying residence homestead. To qualify, the owner must use the home as their principal residence, so a tenant-occupied rental doesn't. Owners who are 65 or older or who have a disability get an additional $60,000 school exemption. The Comptroller's January 2026 property tax newsletter says Texas voters approved both amounts in November 2025.
College Station ISD adopted a 2026 rate of $0.9702 per $100. At that rate, the $140,000 exemption is worth about $1,358 a year in school taxes. Two houses with identical appraisals on the same block can differ by that much every year, before any other exemption or cap. A landlord doesn't get that $1,358, in 2026 or in any other year.
The 2026 rates themselves also went up. These are the adopted rates for a property taxed by the City of College Station, Brazos County, and CSISD, per the Brazos County tax rate summary:
| Taxing unit | 2025 adopted | 2026 no-new-revenue | 2026 adopted |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of College Station | $0.511872 | $0.506934 | $0.530254 |
| Brazos County | $0.419700 | $0.414658 | $0.443474 |
| College Station ISD | $0.975300 | $0.957456 | $0.970200 |
| Combined | $1.906872 | $1.943928 |
The city and county both adopted rates above their no-new-revenue rates, as reported by KBTX and Community Impact. CSISD lowered its rate slightly, according to Community Impact. Combined, the change adds about $37 per $100,000 of taxable value even if the appraisal didn't move. On the hypothetical $300,000 rental, that comes to roughly $111 more for 2026, from rates alone.
Some parcels in Brazos County also sit in an emergency services district, a municipal utility district, or a management district, and each of those adds its own rate. Your tax bill lists every unit that taxes your parcel.
The Texas Real Estate Research Center has also pointed out a less obvious effect. Statewide, the effective tax rate fell 22.11% from 2019 to 2025, mostly because of larger homestead exemptions and lower school rates. Caps and exemptions shrink the share of market value that gets taxed. When part of the tax base is shielded, rates have to cover the part that isn't. Since a rental gets neither the homestead exemption nor the 10% cap, more of its value stays exposed to whatever rates local governments adopt.
Reading your own notice before 2027 values come out
The appraisal district's public property search shows the values on any parcel. The site notes that 2026 figures shown there may still change during the appraisal review board season. To see whether the expiring cap has been doing anything for your rental:
- Compare market value with appraised value for 2026. If they are equal, the circuit breaker wasn't limiting your 2026 value. For 2027, your appraisal will follow whatever market value the district sets, with no 20% limit.
- If appraised value is lower, the difference between the two is roughly the amount that could move onto your taxable value in 2027.
- Compare the land line with last year's. A large land increase, like the one Creek Meadows owners described, is the usual reason a rental runs past 20%.
- Check your purchase date. If you first owned the property on January 1, 2026 or later, the cap never covered you.
- List every taxing unit on the bill and confirm whether any district beyond the city, county, and CSISD applies.
If you're pricing an Edelweiss rental to buy, base your numbers on market value, not the seller's appraised value. The seller's cap ends with their ownership and would have ended on December 31 regardless.
FAQ
Does the homestead 10% cap change too? No. The Comptroller lists the 10% homestead limit separately, and it stays in place for any home with a residence homestead exemption.
If I move into my rental and make it my homestead, what changes? The Comptroller says a home must be the owner's principal residence to qualify for the homestead exemption. The 10% cap starts on January 1 of the year after the owner qualifies.
When was the 2026 protest deadline? KBTX reported a deadline of May 15 for the first wave of 2026 notices, or 30 days after delivery if a notice arrived later.
This post is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Check your own parcel, exemptions, and deadlines with the Brazos Central Appraisal District or a tax professional.
If you own a rental in Edelweiss and aren't sure whether the cap has been holding down your appraised value, Maurey Bell Group can go through your 2026 notice with you and put the 2027 numbers into your cash flow. Request a free home valuation and property management quote, and we'll start with the market value line on your notice.
